Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily (Reporter Rayda) news: China Media Group (CMG) unveiled the sub-venues for the 2024 Spring Festival Gala on January 4, ahead of the upcoming Year of the Dragon in February 2024, and Kashi Prefecture of China’s Xinjiang is one of the four sub-venues this year.

The Spring Festival Gala is presented to people of the whole world with the main venue and the sub-venues every year. But this is the first time a sub-venue has been set up for the Spring Festival Gala in Xinjiang.

Why choose Xinjiang? And do you know what the place Kashi is really like?

Photo taken on November 26, 2023 shows tourists enjoy dances at “Guli’s Home” in the old town of Kashi in Kashi Prefecture, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Shiliuyun - Xinjiang Daily/ Li Rui)

If you have come to Xinjiang, you must have heard a popular saying, “Xinjiang is a nice place, and if you have not been to Kashi, then you haven’t really been to Xinjiang.”

When we say “Xinjiang is a nice place”, we mean Xinjiang is nice in itself.

Located on the northwest border of China, Xinjiang covers an area of 1.66 million square kilometers, accounting for one sixth of China.

In China’s Xinjiang, you can appreciate bestowed landscapes, such as snow-capped mountains, forests, the Gobi deserts, grassland, desert, rivers and lakes, which are yearned for visiting by people around the country.

With a land border of over 5,700 kilometers in length, Xinjiang neighbors eight countries through 20 ports approved by the State Council. These all make Xinjiang an important channel for connecting east and west.

The first free trade pilot zone in the northwest border region of China - the China (Xinjiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone, now stands in the land of Xinjiang. There is also a key pilot zone for development and opening-up in Tacheng, which is ranked ninth in China and the first in Xinjiang.

Golden grain fields, white cotton fields, colorful orchards, and natural pastures filled with cattle and sheep form the beautiful Xinjiang.

Industrious, supportive and loving people of all ethnic groups are working together to build the nice Xinjiang.

That’s why we say Xinjiang is a nice place.

When we say “If you have not been to Kashi, then you haven’t really been to Xinjiang”, we mean Kashi is one of the famous brands of Xinjiang.

And do you know what Kashi is really like?

Photo taken on December 31, 2023 shows tourists visit the old town of Kashi in Kashi Prefecture, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Shiliuyun - Xinjiang Daily/ Cai Zengle)

Kashi is a place that blends history and culture.

Located on the western border of China, Kashi Prefecture sits in the southwest Xinjiang. It borders the Tianshan Mountains to the north, the Pamir Plateau to the west, the Karakoram Mountains to the south, and the Taklimakan Desert to the east.

Echoes of the camel bells along the Silk Road have witnessed the development of Kashi in Chinese civilization over the past 2,000 years. As a place where multiple ethnic groups have merged, Kashi has long been a platform for cultural communication and exchanges with a profound cultural heritage.

For example, in the folk culture of Xinjiang, there is a saying that “one would prefer to have no food for three days rather than have no tea for just one day.”

Back in the Tang Dynasty, tea from the south of the Yangtze River, which is called “Jiangnan” in Chinese, was brought to Kashi through the Silk Road. As a result, tea culture gradually became popular here and has continued to this day.

Every day you can find locals chatting over a pot of tea, sitting on the heatable brick bed in the century-old tea house in the old town of Kashi.

In Kashi, you can also enjoy hand-pulled noodles with vegetable dishes and the sugar Zongzi made of glutinous rice, yogurt and syrup. These are the localized products after being introduced to Kashi from other provinces and regions in China through the Silk Road.

As one of the largest earthen architectural complexes in the world, the old town of Kashi integrates the architectural style of Han and Tang dynasties and Europe, as well as folk customs, forming a characteristic Kashi style.

Photo taken on December 31, 2023 shows the performance of the opening ceremony of the old town of Kashi in Kashi Prefecture, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Shiliuyun - Xinjiang Daily/ Cai Zengle)

This is Kashi, where the southern and northern routes of the Silk Road converge, and culture blends and accumulates. In the embrace of Chinese civilization, Kashi is full of vitality.

Kashi is a place that welcomes development and friends.

Kashi has long been a key transport hub on the Silk Road, and a commercial port where Chinese and foreign merchants gather. Kashi is not only an important courier station on the Silk Road from ancient China to the West, but also a pivotal hub in southern Xinjiang in the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt. Kashi connects eight countries through its five ports and links up Eurasian continents with the Silk Road. It serves as a crucial gateway for China's western opening-up, and an international golden corridor for China to access Central Asia, South Asia, West Asia and Europe.

In the first 11 months of 2023, the total import and export value of foreign trade of Kashi Prefecture was 77.15 billion yuan (about 10.76 billion U.S. dollars), ranking second in Xinjiang.

In the first 11 months of 2023, the total import and export value of Kashi Comprehensive Bonded Zone reached 45.66 billion yuan (about 6.36 billion U.S. dollars), ranking first among the four comprehensive bonded zones in Xinjiang.

With the initiative to jointly build the Belt and Road being put forward and the steady progress made in pursuing high-quality development, we have witnessed many highlight moments of Kashi.

Since the establishment of the Kashi area of the China (Xinjiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone on November 11, 2023 to December 11, 2023, there are 38 business entities being registered in the Kashi urban area and 10 projects signed, with the intended investment value reaching 10 billion yuan (about 1.4 billion U.S. dollars).

This is Kashi, where has been developing and opening up.

Kashi is a place that nurtures happiness and peace.

You would heard a popular saying in Kashi, “If you have not been to the old town of Kashi, you haven’t really been to Kashi.”

The old town of Kashi is the epitome of Kashi.

Photo taken on November 29, 2023 shows tourists ride camels in the old town of Kashi scenic area in Kashi Prefecture, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Adiljan Abdukadir)

In Kashi, you can enjoy the songs and dances of different ethnic groups and the wonderful performances of street artists. You can see the livestreams of Internet celebrities and the endless tourist shuttle bus everywhere. You can hear the shouts of the street vendors, the cling-clangs from the workshops, the rumbling of carts and the laughter of tourists.

Friends from all over the world gather here.

In the old town of Kashi, shops used to be folk house, and residents changed their role and became vendors. The old town of Kashi attracts tourists to start their own businesses, such as homestays, trip shoot studios, coffee shops, prompting the development of the emerging industry.

In 2023, the old town of Kashi received a total of 8.7497 million tourists, a year-on-year increase of 96.68 percent.

In 2023, the Kashi Airport renovation and expansion project was completed. Kashi Airport has been officially renamed as Kashi Laining International Airport, becoming the first international airport for regional aircraft in Xinjiang.

In 2023, 49 schools, including kindergartens, were built, renovated, and expanded in the Kashi Prefecture, with a 45,773 new admission quota for students added. In 2023, Kashi has realized the full coverage of primary-level medical and health care institutions. 151 old residential communities, including 14,825 households, were renewed, and construction projects have been launched to provide 4001 units of affordable housing to urban residents. All these figures are evidence of caring for people's livelihood.

This is Kashi, a land of history and culture, where happiness and peace flourish.

This is Kashi, a land of vitality and development, where happiest stories happen every day.

Kashi epitomizes Xinjiang, embodying the happiness of 26 million people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

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